Tags: writing of art, loving of art, ode, sonnet, Middle English lyric, Anglo-Saxon prosody, alliteration, syntax, imagery
I want to end on this poem for a number of reasons. It was one of the first poems I wrote in this poetry class, and really brings things full circle in that it discusses the experience of being expected to write in certain forms and after certain poets (i.e. existing pieces of art) when there’s already plenty of art that I love influencing my work (obviously, not to say that cannot or should not learn to love more!). It also has myriad explicit influences, which perhaps you can identify a few of.
A Sonnet to Structure
James Bowden
I may fill this in with a proper list of influences and references, but for now I’ll leave it up to you to piece together some of the more explicit links. The tags will likely give some hints.
I want to end on a short anecdote: throughout term, my poetry professor, Jenny, tried (with some success) to get me to follow her assignments more closely instead of running off into whatever I felt needed to be written with an urgency. I mean no disrespect at all, and she is certainly right to large extent and has showed me new giants and I am awfully appreciative of her for that. That I made this anthology is her doing of course, though it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time without knowing it (I’ve been compiling poetry in much less organized and coherent ways for my own sake and for lookup and sharing with friends). Anyhow, in doing this, she implored that I allow her to teach me to sit at the feet of the giants first before departing off into myself. To this, I reply: Look around you. I am already sitting at the feet of giants. They may be different than your giants. They may not write in sonnets. But in my head they are as large as life. Such is this anthology.